Next Cycle
Capstone Project Part 1
Empowering circularity for a sustainable future.
Gold Winner
Sept- Nov 2024
Role: Sustainable Strategist and Service Designer
Stakeholders: SCAD, Apple, Smartphone users
Timeline: 10 weeks
Objective: Redesign consumer behavior and service ecosystems to foster a circular economy for smartphones, combining user-centric design with sustainability.
Primary research: Conducted 5 interviews with Apple employees (anonymous), 12 smartphone consumers, 2 NGO volunteers.
Target audience: Early adopters in USA who own an Apple product.
My Role
Project leadership: Defined the vision and strategy for Next Cycle.
Research & collaboration: Conducted user and market research, engaged stakeholders like NGOs, repair hubs, and corporate partners to align solutions.
Service design: Created user-centered touchpoints, including gamified features, repair networks, and sustainability dashboards.
Sustainability strategy: Bridged companies and consumers, driving systemic change toward a circular economy.
Creative innovation: Developed scalable frameworks using service and sustainable design methodologies.
Storytelling: Presented impactful narratives to communicate the project’s value for environmental and business outcomes.
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Methodologies
Service Blueprinting
Visualized and analyzed the user journey, identifying key touchpoints, backstage processes, and service delivery gaps.
User Journey Mapping
Captured consumer pain points, motivations, and interactions across different stages (awareness, engagement, circular action, and post-cycle).
Double Diamond Framework
Used for problem-solving:
Discover: Primary and secondary research, stakeholder interviews.
Define: Synthesized insights to identify the core problem areas.
Develop: Ideation and prototyping of solutions like gamification, repair hubs, and dashboards.
Deliver: Created tangible deliverables, including app wireframes and Circular Hub prototypes.
Co-Creation Workshops
Facilitated collaboration between stakeholders, including potential users and repair hub representatives, to align business and user goals.
Gamification Design
Applied behavioral design principles to encourage sustainable actions via point systems, levels, and rewards.
Affinity Mapping
Clustered insights from user interviews and surveys to derive patterns and themes related to behaviors and barriers in circular practices.
Stakeholder Mapping
Identified relationships between users, repair hubs, tech manufacturers, and NGOs to ensure holistic service delivery.
Persona Development
Created personas representing eco-conscious users, skeptics, and habitual consumers, informing tailored solutions.
Prototyping & Iteration
Low and high-fidelity prototypes for app interfaces, testing usability and alignment with user needs.
Touchpoint Analysis
Evaluated physical (Circular Hubs) and digital (Next Cycle app) touchpoints for consistency and effectiveness.
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Methodologies
Circular Economy Framework (Ellen MacArthur Foundation)
Focused on reducing waste through repairability, modular upgrades, and closed-loop recycling systems.
Triple Bottom Line (People, Planet, Profit)
Balanced environmental, social, and economic impacts in solutions to ensure business viability and consumer alignment.
Lifecycle Thinking
Assessed the end-to-end impact of devices, from production to disposal, to ensure sustainability interventions at each stage.
Sustainability Metrics Design
Developed metrics such as CO₂ savings, material recovery rates, and user engagement rates to measure environmental impact.
Theory of Change
Outlined inputs, processes, outputs, and outcomes to track how Next Cycle achieves its sustainability goals.
Behavioral Economics
Nudged users toward sustainable actions by emphasizing cost savings, environmental benefits, and gamified incentives.
E-Waste Management Guidelines
Incorporated insights from global policies like EU's Right to Repair and e-waste recycling standards to guide the service model.
User-Centered Design for Sustainability
Ensured accessibility and engagement by simplifying eco-friendly practices through intuitive app features and localized repair options.
Low-Impact Design Principles
Integrated eco-conscious design strategies for the app, such as minimal data use and efficient energy operations.
Systems Thinking (Peter Senge)
Applied holistic thinking to understand the interconnectedness of users, businesses, and environmental systems.
Strategy & Methodologies
Global circularity has declined from 9.1% in 2018 to just 7.2% in 2024, meaning over 90% of materials are wasted, lost, or locked in long-term use. In the same period, humanity consumed 28% of all materials since 1900, with over 500 gigatonnes used. The need for a circular economy has become urgent, with a 21% drop in global circularity in five years, highlighting the unsustainable trajectory of material consumption.
Smartphones contribute significantly to the growing global e-waste problem, with only 17.4% of e-waste recycled globally in 2024.
Problem Statement:
Businesses often lack integrated systems that align consumer habits with circular practices, resulting in environmental and economic losses.
Next Cycle aims to bridge this gap by offering actionable insights, gamified sustainability incentives, and a streamlined ecosystem that promotes sustainable consumption while aligning with business goals.
Introducing Next Cycle
Next Cycle is a mobile app designed to empower users to make sustainable choices with their smartphones by integrating circular economy principles into everyday technology use. The app provides users with tools to monitor their device health, access repair and modular upgrade options, participate in recycling and trade-in programs, and earn rewards for sustainable actions.
Through a seamless user experience, Next Cycle helps bridge the gap between consumer behavior and sustainability goals, making it easy and rewarding for users to engage in eco-friendly practices.
Next Cycle combines gamified rewards, personalized insights, and community-driven sustainability to empower users in making eco-conscious choices. With its innovative approach, Next Cycle bridges consumers and sustainability, redefining everyday behaviors for a circular, greener future.
Core Features: circularity education, device health insights, gamified rewards, repair and upgrade solutions, community engagement, and partnerships
Key features
A unique take
Currently, there’s no service that seamlessly integrates B2B consulting with a consumer-facing app, empowering companies to implement sustainability initiatives while directly engaging their users. Next Cycle serves as the missing link: consulting businesses on integrating circular economy principles while creating intuitive, rewarding experiences for consumers that encourage sustainable actions.
Next Cycle redefines the connection between businesses and consumers in the sustainability space. Unlike traditional consulting services or consumer apps, Next Cycle operates at the intersection of circular economy consulting and user engagement. It’s not just a platform for users to recycle or repair—it’s a comprehensive ecosystem that aligns corporate sustainability strategies with tangible consumer behaviors, closing the loop in e-waste management.
A hybrid model
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Next Cycle helps companies like Apple or Samsung design and implement sustainable strategies while offering users incentives like gamified rewards, sustainability insights, and access to repair hubs.
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Description text goes hereBy directly addressing user pain points like repair accessibility, trade-in friction, and lack of clarity on environmental impact, Next Cycle ensures that corporate strategies translate into real-world impact.
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From consulting businesses on recycling programs to empowering users with personalized sustainability dashboards, Next Cycle creates a holistic, scalable circular economy model.